Imagine Carbon3D’s new 3D printer as Robert Patrick emerging as the T-1000 from a puddle of liquid metal in “Terminator 2.” Called the CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production), this printer’s technology uses a photosensitive resin that reacts to UV light and oxygen, resulting in smooth 3D objects that appear to magically emerge from a pool of liquid as a robotic arm draws them upwards. Continue reading for the video and more information.
Here’s what the company says: “At the heart of the CLIP process is a special window that is transparent to light and permeable to oxygen, much like a contact lens. By controlling the oxygen flux through the window, CLIP creates a ‘dead zone’ in the resin pool just tens of microns thick (about 2-3 diameters of a red blood cell) where photopolymerization cannot occur. As a series of cross-sectional images of a 3D model is played like a movie into the resin pool from underneath, the physical object emerges continuously from just above the dead zone.”
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